Love BIG.

by Brandy Richardson

Today being Valentine's Day, I felt it would be an opportune time to talk about how studying abroad has opened my eyes to all of the people in my life that I love and am incredibly thankful for!

I am a very emotional person. I am emotional regarding my friends and family, right down to a stray animal walking down the street. Being emotional can be quite a double-edged sword! While in Chile, I have been thankful for my emotions. Today marks a month and a day being in Santiago. Since being here, my emotions have run wild! I attribute a lot of that to how many people here and back home I love so dearly. I have traveled a pretty good amount, but this trip marks the longest I have ever spent out of the country. Being out of the country makes being away from loved ones even more difficult; when in the States, even if you are hundreds of miles away from your friends and family, they still feel much more accessible than when a $1,500 plane ticket, a passport, a visa, and 5,000 miles stand between you.

Although this all may sound negative, I am quite thankful to feel this "lack of accessibility" with my friends and family. The past four weeks have shown me in such a big way how much God has blessed me. I have people to miss! How amazing is that? I miss my mom and dad and I miss Hannah and Brad at Lipscomb. I miss so many more than just those four, as well! God gives us emotions and I am thankful to feel those, even if they are kicked into overdrive here in Chile! I am thankful that I can miss people and yearn to see them. That yearning lets me know that when I am back in the States, seeing them and being around them will be that much sweeter! I will cherish the moments that I have with my closest friends and family more than ever before!

Being here in Chile is such a blessing and I feel myself growing more and more as my time here goes by.  God is growing my love for the people here in Santiago with me and my love for all of the people I can't wait to hug and share stories with when I get back and I am so thankful! Loving people is so much more than a day marked on a calender: it is realizing why you love them, what you love about them, and realizing that they love and miss you as much as you do them!

Don't take to ability to love and miss for granted! It is a huge blessing and I am so glad being here has taught me that!